


When it's all said and done (And you're a little worse for wear)

by SquaresAreNotCircles



Category: Hawaii Five-0 (2010)
Genre: Chin Ho Kelly is the most ridiculously good friend ever and deserves a hug, Emotional Hurt/Comfort, Episode: s05e18 Pono Kaulike (Justice for All), Gen, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-10-16
Updated: 2018-10-16
Packaged: 2019-08-02 21:58:14
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,124
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16313414
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/SquaresAreNotCircles/pseuds/SquaresAreNotCircles
Summary: “You know how to get to Chin’s from here, right?” Danny asks. It’s not a real question; he’s pretty sure Steve has long since memorized a street map of the entire island.Or: A coda to episode 5x18, where after Danny and Chin have been let go and Danny has talked to Grace, he talks to Chin, too.





	When it's all said and done (And you're a little worse for wear)

**Author's Note:**

> The working title for this was “The 5x18 fic where Danny and Chin talk about what the fuck just happened”.
> 
> My reasoning behind this is mostly just that I REALLY NEEDED THIS TO HAPPEN IN CANON, OKAY. I love Chin and I love Danny, but uh, hey, it’s crazy that Chin very nearly goes to prison for helping Danny (which is a depressing trend with Chin and his family) and then we never even get any kind of interaction between them at all the entire episode, or any kind of acknowledgement in the episodes after that.
> 
> The title of this fic comes from the first two lines of _Brother_ , a song by X Ambassadors.
> 
> *
> 
> Quick optional refresher for anyone not entirely sure what happened in 5x18, because I’m posting this about three and a half years after the episode aired and I can’t blame you: earlier in the season, Danny needed money to (he hoped) buy his brother Matt’s freedom from Reyes, a Columbian drug lord. Chin arranged part of the payment by asking his criminal brother-in-law Gabriel for help. Eventually, Steve and Danny found that Matt was already dead, and Danny shot Reyes. 
> 
> In this episode, the past catches up with all of them, and Danny gets arrested and extradited to Columbia, where he has a pretty hellish stay in a prison for a couple of days until Steve and the gang manage to get him free through some creative means involving diamonds and blackmail of a corrupt government agent (as you do); meanwhile, Chin is under arrest back in Hawaii, where Internal Affairs has been hounding him for ages. They think they’ve finally found evidence that Chin is dirty, because he accepted millions from a criminal (which he freely admits to, because that’s who Chin is, but they don’t believe his truthful explanation and think Chin still has the money). Chin eventually gets off because Gabriel kills the IA agent that led the investigation against him and the case falls apart, but at one point before that the Five-0 team has to make the conscious choice to focus their efforts on rescuing Danny first, because his situation is more dangerous, which I found pretty heartbreaking, to be honest. 
> 
> At the end of the episode, Steve drives Danny in his truck to Rachel’s house to see Grace. Steve stays there and watches them with a sappy look, until Joe reveals some things about Steve’s mother. We get a short scene of Chin arriving to an empty home and receiving a creepy text from Gabriel, and that’s the end of it. We never see Danny and Chin interact in any way, even though Chin’s arrest was very directly linked to him helping Danny and Danny’s execution of Reyes.

Danny gets to hold Grace for about an hour before Rachel calls her in for dinner. Grace tries to put up a fight, but the truth is that Danny is half relieved, under the disappointment he shares with her. He’s beaten and bruised and bone tired, and it’s not going to be long before he crashes completely. He’d rather not do it in front of his daughter and scare her any more than he already has.

After they’ve said their teary goodbyes and he’s promised to call first thing in the morning, Danny hobbles across Rachel and Stan’s lawn back to Steve’s truck. Steve is still leaning against it, looking for all the world like it’s just a casual thing, waiting for a good hour to drive your injured buddy around. Steve may say he likes cats better, but in Danny’s world, he’s a dog person, if only for how many traits he shares with them.

“Ready to go home?” Steve asks.

Danny huffs a laugh. Really laughing takes too much effort and reminds him painfully that his body is more bruise than normal skin at the moment. “Never been more ready. But there’s one more stop we have to make first, if you don’t mind.”

Steve looks like he’s considering saying he minds just because he thinks Danny should get to a bed as soon as possible. Danny can’t really fault him for that thought – loves the idea, even – but he really has one other thing he needs to do before he can give in to what his body is screaming at him.

“You know how to get to Chin’s from here, right?” he asks. It’s not a real question; he’s pretty sure Steve has long since memorized a street map of the entire island.

Steve just nods and opens the passenger door for Danny. Danny is grateful enough for everything that he doesn’t even complain about the special treatment.

*

Danny will admit that he’s not in optimal condition at the moment. Physically that’s obvious, but it’s true mentally as well – but even in his less than super sharp state, he doesn’t miss the way Steve has gone pretty quiet. 

“You alright?” he asks, because he’s been asked that a hundred times by now since setting foot on US soil again, but Steve hasn’t. Underneath that tough SEAL exterior there is a very fragile heart with triggers that even after five years Danny sometimes can’t entirely predict. 

“I’m fine.” It’s cute that Steve still thinks that might deter Danny. He doesn’t take his eyes off the road though, which means he’s not even really trying to convince Danny he is telling the truth.

Danny watches his profile for a moment. He takes a wild stab at what might be the problem, which isn’t really very wild at all, considering certain past trends in Steve’s life. “I noticed Joe stopped by and you had a talk while I was with Grace. What did he want?”

“It’s a long story.”

“Hey, I’m probably on leave for at least a couple of days, so I have nothing but time.”

Steve’s shoulders sag a bit, and he finally glances at Danny. His eyes are on the very straight, very empty road again, avoiding Danny’s, when he comes out with it. “My mother was the one who gave us the info we needed to get you free.”

“What?” Danny lets that sink in. He wants to be surprised, he really does, but he can’t be, not really. Doris has been messing with Steve’s head since day one, and this seems perfectly in character for her. “I have Doris to thank for this?”

“Yes.”

“Okay, you know what?” Danny raises his hands to animate his words, more for Steve’s benefit than his own. He’s too tired and sore too move a lot, but he knows it will make Steve feel like things are a little closer to normal. “That is complete nonsense. This was a nice thing she did, I suppose, and I am very grateful that it means I got to go back home and hold my daughter in my arms again – believe me, I am – but that doesn’t erase everything she did before that. I don’t want to thank her.”

The corner of Steve’s mouth twitches. “Neither do I, but I kind of have to now. That is, if she ever deigns to show her face again, of course.”

“Jesus.”

“Yeah,” Steve agrees, and he sounds so weary it hurts Danny’s heart a little, which is just about the only part of him that wasn’t bruised yet. “Let’s just forget about it for now, okay?”

“Forget about it? Steve, you can’t just-”

“Yes, I can,” Steve says forcefully. “Look, you’re injured, you just came back from a Columbian prison where you underwent beatings that amount to torture, and I didn’t have the best week either. Doris isn’t here; this isn’t a pressing issue, as of now. It can wait until tomorrow.”

Danny capitulates perhaps a little easier than he would usually, but he thinks it’s justified, considering everything. “Okay. That makes sense.”

“Thank you,” Steve says. He glances at Danny, and his stupid face softens, which is absurd, because Danny knows he looks like hell, despite what Steve said earlier. “I’m glad you’re okay.”

“I’m not even remotely okay, Steven,” Danny grumbles, but he’s not really going against Steve.

One of Steve’s warm hands faux-casually finds its way to Danny’s left wrist without Steve looking. Danny covers it with his right hand and gives a squeeze.

“You will be,” Steve says, with such conviction Danny really has no choice but to believe every word he says. “We all will.”

*

Just like Steve helped Danny into the car, he helps him out of it when they’re parked in front of Chin’s house. He sticks close to Danny while he walks the short distance to the front door. It rankles Danny a bit. “I’m perfectly capable of walking on my own two feet, you know that? I’ve only been doing it for about four decades.” 

“I know,” Steve says, but he doesn’t stop watching Danny like a hawk. He looks an awful lot like he’s ready to throw himself to the ground as a human shock absorber at any moment if Danny even so much as thinks about stumbling.

Danny sighs, but he can’t muster any real annoyance. Too much shit happened today and the days before; Steve has a right to be his own crazy brand of worried for a bit.

Danny knocks at the door, but it has him wincing and still doesn’t come out forceful enough to make it seem likely Chin heard anything. Steve redoes it for him. It would be embarrassing how many little things he needs Steve for right now, but Steve makes it look so self-evident that he should do all these things for Danny, that there’s no room for awkwardness left.

Chin opens the door in a T-shirt and what looks like a pair of old track pants. His eyebrows shoot up when he sees them. “Danny, Steve. What are you doing here? Is something wrong?”

“No, no emergencies,” Danny assures him, feeling like a bit of a heel for making Chin worry all over again. “We just came out of one long, hellish emergency. I think we’re due something of a break, according to the karmic laws of the universe, or whatever.”

“Hear, hear.” Chin steps back to allow them entry. “Come in, guys. I say this with all due respect for your sheer determination to keep going, Danny, but you look like you’re about to keel over.”

“You’re as bad as Steve,” Danny complains, but carefully lowering himself onto Chin’s couch and finally getting to sit his ass down on something soft again feels so good he thinks he blacks out for a second or two, so maybe Chin has a point. (Not Steve, though. Steve is still a worrywart.)

Chin is gone for a moment, and when he returns he comes from the kitchen, carrying three glasses of water. He puts them down on the coffee table, and Steve, who has taken Chin’s arm chair, gives a nod of thanks, even though Chin didn’t ask him if he perhaps wanted a beer instead.

Or maybe he did, and Danny just missed it. He decides not to make a point of it, just in case.

It’s only when Chin sits down on the other end of the couch that it hits Danny just how quiet and empty the rest of the house is.

“You’re home alone?” he realizes. That seems wrong. After everything that happened – after Danny inadvertently laid claim to almost all of their friends’ help and left Chin to fend for himself – that seems really wrong.

Chin shrugs. “I only just got here. I was with Kono, Jerry and Max at Kamekona’s.”

“Right.” Danny leans further back against the couch. Chin clearly has good taste in couches, because he can’t remember the last time he sat somewhere this comfortable. “That’s something, I guess.”

Chin glances from Danny to Steve with amusement on that handsome face of his. “Is that why you’re here? To keep me company?”

Steve holds up his hands, palms forward. “I have no idea. I’m just the chauffeur.”

“He’s telling the truth,” Danny admits. “I asked him to drive me here.”

“Well, now you’re here.” It’s a statement, but the way Chin says it, it’s also a question.

“I am. And I need to tell you something.”

Chin does an admirable job of keeping his face relaxed, but something in his eyes clouds over. Danny is going about this entirely the wrong way, because he keeps scaring Chin on accident, when that’s the last thing he wants right now. He continues before Chin is forced to prompt him yet again.

“Listen, Chin, I just- I wanted to thank you, man. I already owed you a bigger debt than I can probably ever repay, and after this mess, that’s been tripled.” He tries to sit up a little straighter and turn Chin’s way, but his torso doesn’t particularly want him to. He settles for old school turning his head and leaning an elbow on the back of the couch, which he can just about manage. “I never should have gotten you involved in this. You risked everything you have, and it didn’t even get us anywhere, and it still got you dragged down with me, even though it was all for nothing.” 

Because Matt was already in pieces in a South-American barrel, he thinks, but he can’t quite bring himself to say it out loud.

Chin is shaking his head, but at least he doesn’t look like he’s bracing himself for more bad news anymore. “You didn’t know how things would play out,” he says. “It was not for nothing. It was worth the shot, and you didn’t drag me into anything, I offered. You just did the right thing, Danny.”

Danny looks at Steve, who is sitting there, watching them patiently, like he’s been doing for Danny all evening. Danny returns his attention to Chin, and flaps a helpless hand at him. “Wait, how did this turn into you comforting me? That’s not what I came here for.”

Chin’s amusement is back, and it’s so good to see that Danny can’t even be offended. “Well, what did you come here for, then?”

“To apologize.” He hasn’t fully realized it until the words are out, but they feel right. This is what drove him here. “I’m sorry, Chin. I’m sorry for what happened to you, and I’m sorry I wasn’t there to get you out of it when it did. I should have been.”

“I think getting knocked around in a Columbian prison is a reasonable excuse,” Chin says, characteristically wry.

“Is it, though?” It’s meant mostly as a witty rejoinder, a joke, the way Danny would normally respond to something like that. But he’s exhausted and broken open and has been feeling nauseatingly guilty, and it comes out far more like an actual question than he intends.

“Yes,” Chin assures him, rock solid in his conviction. He doesn’t try to put a hand on Danny, because he’s a smart guy and probably knows he would have a fifty-fifty chance of hitting a bruise, but he does tilt his head forward imploringly. “Hey, seriously, it’s okay. I went into this with my eyes open. I knew something like this could happen. It was a risk I took willingly.”

Danny looks at Chin for a long moment, searching for any sign that he’s not being entirely truthful. He doesn’t find anything, of course.

He sighs and lets his head drop back against the couch, closing his eyes for just a moment. “Thank you. Doesn’t mean I’m less sorry that it happened.”

“I appreciate that. I’m sorry for what happened to you, too.”

“Sometimes I wonder if you’re even a real person.”

Chin’s laugh warms a corner of Danny’s heart that had been frozen ever since he heard Chin had been arrested around the same time he was. They’re both out, they’re both fine, or at least going in that direction – things will be okay again. Five-0 will be able to move on from this nightmare.

“How so?” Chin inquires.

Danny wrenches his eyes open with great effort and rolls his head on the back of the couch in Chin’s direction. “You’re so damn dependable. Jerry’s yearbook was scarily right.”

Chin grins at him. “I’ll take that as a compliment.”

“You should. You almost out-loyal McGarrett, and that’s no easy feat.”

“Okay,” Steve says, which is Danny’s first reminder in a while that he’s still in the room with them. The second is that Steve is suddenly standing over him. Danny isn’t sure if he just wasn’t looking or if Steve used some SEAL ninja skills when he stood up, but now here Steve is, all beautiful, ridiculous six foot very-tall of him. “Let’s go, buddy. We need to get you home.”

“Ugh,” Danny says, because that’s what he feels, and he’s very proud of being clear about even his pettiest emotions. “Babe, my apartment is at least a twenty minute drive from here. I don’t know if I’ll make it that far before I pass out.”

“I didn’t mean your apartment,” Steve says, way too fucking honest, and the way he glances at Chin after saying it tells Danny that he probably didn’t mean to blurt it out like that.

Chin takes it in stride, like he does everything. “You’re not going anywhere. Either of you. You can both stay over tonight.”

“Thank you,” Danny sighs, already cautiously tilting sideways on the sofa to lower himself to a more horizontal position. It’s harder than it sounds if he doesn’t want to hit so many sore spots he throws up. “You’re a wonderful man, Chin.”

“Hey, no,” Steve says, but it’s Chin who catches him by the arm to keep him from lying down. Maybe a little less wonderful, suddenly.

“What?” He’s whining, he definitely is. He thinks he’s earned it.

“I have a guest room, brah. Steve can take the couch. You’re going to need a real bed, trust me.”

Danny eyes him warily. He does trust Chin, implicitly, but the suggestion goes against everything he wants right now.

“If you fall asleep right here, tomorrow you won’t be able to move at all,” Steve points out. He takes Danny’s other arm, somehow even more gentle about it than Chin, which is just silly. Steve is such a giant softie. Steve has lots of muscles to make him look good, but his heart could arm wrestle them all any day.

Chin huffs a quiet laugh while he and Steve help Danny shuffle around the couch.

“Did I say that out loud?” Danny blinks a couple of times. Keeping his eyes open is hard, and seems superfluous, because he knows neither Chin nor Steve would ever let him run into a wall.

“You did,” Steve says, and Danny listens carefully, but he sounds only fond. And tired, but that’s true for all of them.

“Hey, Chin,” Danny says.

“Yes?”

“You’re a good friend, you know that?” 

And he is; he so is. He took great personal risk to get Danny the money to try to get Matt back, which he didn’t have to do, and then he didn’t complain when Danny shot Matt’s murderer instead and Chin almost went to jail on charges of accessory to a murder he wasn’t present for, and as if all of that wasn’t enough to win him several Oscars for outstanding friendship, Steve trusts Chin enough to not even mind when Danny accidentally flirts with him right in front of Chin. That’s. That’s important, Danny’s sluggish brain is pretty sure about that.

“Thank you, Danny,” Chin says solemnly, because he’s always solemn, but Danny knows him, too. He knows Chin is pleased.

“If, God forbid, you ever have a brother that gets kidnapped by a Columbian drug lord and I can get five and half million from my evil brother in law to help you maybe save your little bro, you just let me know, buddy, and I’ll be there in a heartbeat.”

“I know you will. You’re a good friend too, Danny.”

Danny blinks quickly a couple of times, partly because his eyelids keep wanting to obey the laws of gravity, partly because his eyes have gotten very wet suddenly. He intentionally drags his feet a little more than he already did, bringing their strange six-legged caravan to a stand. He takes one of his arms from around Steve’s waist where it had somehow landed without his knowledge, and instead wraps both of them around Chin.

Chin is a little stiff for about half a second. Then he gets with the program, putting his arms around Danny in return and relaxing into it. Danny thumps Chin’s back a couple of times to make it more manly and then ruins that by pressing his face into Chin’s shoulder. He can feel Chin exhale a slightly shaky breath, and feels like he knows Chin a little better now than he did before that moment.

When Danny lets him go, Chin is smiling, and Steve is still right there at Danny’s back.

“You two, and Kono, and Grover,” Danny muses. “I really don’t know how I got so lucky.”

“You have an odd definition of luck if you’re talking about it while sporting that black eye, Williams,” Chin says. He’s shaking his head, but he’s also still smiling softly as he holds open the door to the guest room, so Steve can half help, half carry Danny towards that bed he’d been promised.

**Author's Note:**

> This was an extremely self-indulgent fic, and probably posted way too late to be relevant for the rest of the world, so kudos to you if you've made it this far! If you feel like leaving a comment, I'd really love to hear what you think. <3
> 
> I'm on Tumblr as [itwoodbeprefect](itwoodbeprefect.tumblr.com)!


End file.
